CHAPTER 16
Now that I have told you about the life of Harold, I will tell you about the life of Gene’s other older brother, Steven. I think you will see that his life was just as exciting as Harold’s. Also, you will see how the world could have been changed, if Steven would have accepted Christ as his Savior.
Steven Lynn decided to go to Bible College right after high school, just like his older brother, Harold. Each year at school, all the mission boards would send representatives to tell about their mission field. In his second year, he took a long look at the mission field. He started to think back about a movie he had seen with Charlton Heston as the star. The movie was Khartoum.
The movie went along with the true life story of General Gordon. During his stay in the Sudan, he stopped the slave trade and crushed any rebellion or uprising. He was killed on January 26, 1885, by a Sudanese rebel by the name of Muhammad Ahmad al-Mahdi. After his death, the British public acclaimed him, “Gordon of Khartoum.”
Intrigued by the movie and the life of General Gordon, Steven decided he wanted to go to the Sudan and spread the gospel. His main thrust was to finish college, raise his support, and then go where the slave trade was still very active. The Sudan would be his life’s goal.
If you were to think about his real life, without Christ, you will remember he was sentenced to be a prisoner, held captive within four walls. Yet, with Christ, he chose to be a prisoner. This prison was one that was not placed there by Christ, but was one that Steven placed around himself. He surmised that a prison had certain rules and those rules were not to be broken. A prison, also, has certain jobs one must perform on a daily basis. His thinking was to act as if all the rules of a prison would apply to him. In prison, you go from one day to another until your time is up. Once your time is up, you are released. Each and every prisoner looks forward to that specific date that he will be released.
There is rejoicing and excitement at the very moment that the prisoner is set free. Steven was thinking the same way when it came to spreading the gospel. The very moment that a person accepts Christ, there will be rejoicing and excitement, not only in Heaven, but also on earth. Steven did everything he was supposed to do to prepare himself for the mission field. Not only did he prepare himself scholastically, but he prepared himself mentally and physically.
The last 2 ½ years of Bible College, Steven decided to work out every day and he took on a part time job. The job was not necessary for him to get through Bible College. However, because support was hard to get, he decided a part time job would give him some extra money which he could save and, just in case of a crisis or an emergency, he would have a small nest egg to fall back on. Steven had no idea just how important that nest egg would be until years later.
The part time job Steven had was that of a mechanic. He started working on small engines and later on, he was taught how to work on bigger and bigger engines, until one day, in his senior year, he had an opportunity to learn how to work on airplane engines. The idea of working on airplane engines was beyond his wildest dreams. You might say, it is beyond any person’s wildest dreams, but the Lord places things in our paths that will help us years later down the road. That is the way it was for Steven. The Lord knew that Steven was going to need all the help he could get, and the money that he would make working on airplane engines would be that nest egg, once he was in the Sudan.
During the last year of Bible College, things took an unexpected change. The mission board requested that Steven remain in college for two more years and work on his Master’s Degree. Steven was dumfounded by the decision. He wanted to get to the Sudan and spread the gospel as soon as possible. However, the Lord had other plans for Steven. The Lord wanted him to earn as much money as he could before going to the mission field. Even though Steven was anxious about getting to the mission field and spreading the gospel, he had to be patience and let the Lord work everything out.
He had read all about the Sudan and what was happening with the slave trade. The cruelty that people suffered at the hands of a fellow human could never be imagined or believed until he was in the country and he could witness it for himself.
The mission board saw something in Steven that he would never, and could never, see in himself. What the mission board saw was leadership. Mission boards interview many, many candidates for the field each year. Once in a great while, they met a candidate that stands above and beyond all others. There is something that makes that person stand out and there is something that goes beyond a human understanding of leadership and morality. Steven had all the qualities of being another Hudson Taylor, one of the great missionaries to China, or the great India missionary, William Carey.
Sometimes a mission board sees that person becoming more than he could even think of being. Sometimes, that person becomes the President of the entire mission board. This is what the mission board saw in Steven. They also knew that his heart was for the Sudan, but after the Sudan, then what? With the dynamic personality and the leadership qualities that Steven had portrayed, he was a natural for high leadership in the mission board.
Now, I will get back to the part time job of working on airplane engines. Steven knew that one of the highest paid jobs around was airplane engine repair. He thought that the Lord had put the job there so he could learn how to repair the engines. However, he never considered that the Lord put that job there so he could earn thousands of dollars for a savings account that would save lives.
The slave trade was running rampant and the extra money that Steven made would make it possible for him to buy certain men, women, and children that he knew would either be killed, molested, tortured or have other cruel things happen that one could not even imagine. During his twenty four years in the Sudan, he would be able to free thousands of people by giving favors, by buying them, by trading things, or by negotiating for their freedom. Before the end of his ministry, he would become known as the modern day General Gordon. His zeal would become the catalyst all over the world for a renewal to the mission vision of the great missionaries of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
The Lord was working on Steven in one other way that would help with money and with freeing slaves.
Once Steven learned how to work on and repair airplane engines, the Lord opened another field. The field of jet engine repair was booming. All over the world, jet engine repair mechanics were being paid more than the President of the United States. So the Lord opened that field for Steven, also. Once he learned how to repair and work on jet engines, he had to use his time wisely. Going to Bible College with an eighteen hour load and learning how to work on airplane engines and then jet engines was extremely time consuming and it was very hard on the body. But, Steven left everything in the hands of the Lord. He said the Lord would give him the time that was needed for all of the challenges.
Now, let me get back to the Bible College days of Steven. Some Bible students do not prepare themselves for an adventure into the mission field. They think of it as a job instead of a calling. Steven considered it a calling of God. He knew it was not going to be easy. As a matter of fact, he knew it was going to be very difficult and it was very possible that he would even lose his life. But, what was one life compared to what Christ did for us on the cross, two thousand years ago. His thinking was to take the gospel to the Sudan, just as General Gordon did, and to try and stop the slave trade.
The prison that Steven had imagined was one that would be focused around Jesus Christ. He would do all the things necessary to prepare himself for the Sudan and, as I said before, the Lord places things in our path that will help us in the future.
The path that Steven was walking was the exact path the Lord had prepared for a young man that wanted only to serve his God and his Savior, Jesus Christ. During the last semester of college, just before he received his Bachelor’s Degree in Bible, he met a sophomore girl by the name of Jackie Ann Connors. Jackie was from a family that
was currently on the mission field. The first day they met was in the lunch room. The only chair that was empty was right next to Jackie. Steven asked if the seat was taken and Jackie, like the lady she was, answered, “No.”
The next day, there were a lot of open seats in the lunch room, but for reasons not known to Steven, he went and sat right across from Jackie. They both made small talk during lunch and once they were finished, they finally made direct eye contact. For the first time in the short life of Steven, he had a feeling that he had never experienced before. The palms of his hands were sweating and he could feel beads of sweat on his neck and on his back. The feeling of love affects all people differently. With Jackie, she felt a sense of security and a feeling of desire that she had never felt before. Oh, yes, they both had many dates during their high school days and they had dated during their time at Bible College. But, the Lord did not want them to have that feeling until it was His timing. The timing for Steven and Jackie was just starting and it would continue until the summer that Jackie would graduate from Bible College.
Each day, they would meet and talk about things they wanted to do and things that they considered important. The day that Steven informed Jackie that he was going to the mission field in the Sudan, Jackie about died. She explained that missionaries were not welcomed in the Sudan and that his life would be in jeopardy each and every day that he was there. She knew this, because her parents were missionaries in the Chad. The Chad was a small country next to the Sudan. Time after time, the rebels would invade the Chad and would kill and steal. Steven wanted Jackie to understand his mission. His mission was to go to the Sudan and free as many people as he could from an eternal life of hell and, also, to free them from the perils of corrupt men. His goal was to spread the Gospel.
Day after day, they talked about the mission field and, one day, the topic finally arrived at marriage. They both knew it was the Lord that made their paths to cross and, since it was the Lord that made all things happen, they knew they were going to be married. Jackie knew that life in the Sudan was going to be very difficult. She, also, knew that if they were to have children, their children would be in harm’s way most of the time. But, she knew that with Steven and the Lord, she had the majority. Nothing could happen to her or her family, unless the Lord permitted it to happen. If He permitted it to happen, then there was a reason, and she would have to rely on the Lord to reveal the reason to her and her family.
Steven and Jackie saw each other a lot during the day, but after school, Steven had to work his part time job. Each and every penny he made was put into savings for the mission field. Jackie, also, was putting money back from the part time job she took after school. She decided she would not say anything about the extra money. She would let it be a surprise one of these days, when things seemed so dark and gloomy and nothing seemed to be working out.
Jet engine repair did pay a lot of money and after two years of working on them and working on his Master’s, it was finally time to receive his degree. Remember, that same year, Jackie would be receiving her degree. This was the biggest year in Steven and Jackie’s life. They both received their degrees and, on June 17, they were married. After a week honeymoon, Steven contacted the mission board and was given his instructions. He and Jackie were supposed to go to the mission school and learn the language of the Sudan. Jackie could speak the language pretty well, but Steven found out it was not going to be a cake walk, learning their native tongue.
After nine months of training, which included speaking, writing, and singing in the Sudan language, Steven was ready for the mission field, but was the mission field ready for Steven?
The first thing that had to happen was for the government to give Steven and Jackie permission to enter the country as missionaries. If you remember, Jackie said that with Steven and the Lord she had a majority. Well, that is not really true. Just having the Lord gives you the majority. The Lord was going to work everything out so Steven and Jackie could enter the country without any problems. First, the Minister of Interior had rejected all applicants from missionaries for a visa into the country. Second, the increased violence in the country toward foreigners was on the rise. Third, anyone teaching or preaching Christianity would be tried for treason and would be executed.
Now that you know the obstacles that were placed in the path of Steven and Jackie by the government of Sudan, you will see how the Lord worked all things out for His good. First, in a dream one night, the Minister of Interior was told not to hinder the paper work of Steven and Jackie, but to grant them entrance into the country. Also, the dream showed him his death, within one week, if he did not grant them permission to enter the country. Second, because Jackie was a Chad national, she would be considered a national in the Sudan. This was a little agreement the countries had before the civil war. The Minister of Interior said that if there was any violence toward them, the responsible ones would be tried and either put into prison or would be executed. Third, the Lord made it possible for people that were against the Gospel being preached to have their ears closed. In some way, He made it possible for the government to turn the cheek, when it came to the Gospel. One might say, it was one miracle after another in the life of the greatest missionary ever in the history of Africa.
The first day in the Sudan would be a day that would be remembered by all the people there and would be written in books of great Christians. Steven and Jackie had just left the airport and were on their way to their new home, when the taxi cab driver started a conversation. Steven informed the driver they were Christian missionaries and they were excited about being in the Sudan. The driver stated that they would not be there long, once the people knew what they were there for. He made it very clear they would be killed or expelled out of the country in one week. Steven never gave a thought about the statement from the driver, but he did ask if it was true about the market place where one might buy a person to be a slave. The driver told him not to go there because he would be killed for sure. Steven told him that was where they wanted to go, after they left their suit cases at their new home.
Once Steven had paid the driver for the fare to their new home and to the market place, it was time to see if the stories were true about the slave trade. Steven and Jackie walked and looked at all the things the market place had to offer, but there was no slave trading going on that they could see.
After another five minutes of looking, they could hear something off in the distance. It was a loud speaker shouting out something they could not make out. Following the sound, they finally found what they were looking for. The trading of slaves was in the wide open space toward the south of the market place.
Standing and watching as the speaker gave the height, weight, age, and health of the person that was being sold, made the blood boil in Steven. The small girl was only ten years old. Her mother was very poor and she had four other children to feed and she needed the money. The speaker started out at one thousand dollars, but soon he had to drop the price to five hundred. After five more minutes, the price would go down to one hundred dollars. There were no takers for this small girl. Rumors in the crowd were that she was too small to do anything. One middle aged man shouted out and said she was good for nothing. Another said it might be better if someone bought her and put her out of her misery. At that time another man said, “I will give you two dollars for her. “
Another said, “Three!”
Then someone shouted, “Four.”
Then the price was up to twenty dollars. After another minute of bidding, the speaker stopped and walked toward the little girl. He reached down and pulled up her dress and stated, with a grin on his face, “She is very tender and young, if you know what I mean.”
Steven had heard enough. He pushed through the crowd and jumped up on the platform. With a look of fire in his eyes, he gave the speaker one big push and down he went. Speaking in the language of Sudanese, he stated that it was wrong
and immoral to sell people into slavery. “Children are a gift from God to loving parents. If you do not believe what I have just said, read it for yourselves in the Bible.” Steven gave the scripture and he also quoted from memory more from the Word of God.
Instead of there being a riot, the people in the market place seemed to be humbled by what Steven was saying. The mother of the small child even asked to be forgiven for her sin. With the crowd listening intently, Steven then preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Grown men and women who had never heard the Gospel before were crying and asking Christ to come into their hearts. Steven stated that the Bible said that once you accept, you should be baptized. He told them that those who had accepted could be baptized in the fountains.
In the middle of the market place, there was a large fountain that had three feet of water always flowing in it. The crowd followed Steven and Jackie to the fountain and, one by one, each and every person that had accepted Jesus was baptized. While at the fountain, more and more men, women and children came to accept and to be baptized.
When Steven first started to preach about the Gospel, the people were astonished at his voice. The voice they heard was that of one with great authority and forcefulness. Also, the loud and demanding voice of Steven made them think that a prophet of God was in their presence. Steven could not have known that God had made the people hear a much different voice than the actual voice of Steven. What the people heard was more of a thunder in Steven’s voice. His voice was so demanding and loud that people were certain that he was sent from God.
In fact, after that first message, people were accepting Christ daily for the next twenty four years. (When the rapture occurred and Steven was in Heaven, he found out that God had made the people in the Sudan believe that he was sent by God and they believed that they had great sin in their lives and they had to accept. Accept they did.)
After the last person was baptized, Steven grabbed a golden opportunity, when a verse came to his memory. The Lord put the verse in his memory in order to convince the crowd that Steven was a preacher, sent by God. The verse was Acts 2:41 - 'Then they that gladly received his word were baptized; and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.'
After Steven quoted the verse, he asked if the people would sit still and let someone count the total number of people that had accepted and that were baptized. Thirty minutes later, the man that did the counting shouted out that there were three thousand people, exactly three thousand. All eyes were now focused on Steven. Before Steven could say anything, one of the oldest men in the crowd stood up and shouted so everyone could hear.
“The Bible is the true Word of God. It said three thousand people would accept and be baptized. We have witnessed a miracle from God.”
“This verse is referring to the time when the church was just starting almost two thousand years ago,” Steven told the people.
The older man shouted again, “It does not make any difference, the Bible said three thousand and we will believe the Bible. Not only is the Bible the Word of God, but you are a prophet of God.”
“I am a missionary sent from God to you so you can hear the Gospel. I am not a prophet.”
“You may call yourself anything that you want, but we know that you are a prophet. We also know from the ancients that a prophet would come and lead us out of our misery and sins. You are that prophet. We have seen the light and now we will follow what you teach us.”
The very thing that the Lord wanted to happen did happen. The people believed that Steven was the first true prophet of God in thousands of years. From that day on, the people of the Sudan started to believe and accept.
Even though the people believed that Steven was a prophet of God, they did not stop the slave trade.
There were certain men in the Sudan that tried to stop the Word from being preached by Steven. They would tell lies about him, the things that he was teaching, and the things that he believed. The Lord, on the other hand, was not going to let anyone or anything stop the spread of the Gospel.
By the time the ministry of Steven was over, the Sudan would be considered the United States of Africa. The slave trade would stop, as would all other corrupt things that a deceptive nation like the Sudan was doing. Sudan changed their government structure and adopted freedom and the pursuit of happiness for all. With Christianity growing and engulfing the entire country, the leaders decided it was best if they sent missionaries to all the other countries in Africa. The spread of the Gospel was like a burning desire in the hearts of people that had never heard the Word before.
One year after Steven and Jackie arrived in the Sudan, Jackie became pregnant. Not only were Steven and Jackie both excited, but the people of the Sudan were more excited than the parents were. The thinking was that the prophet of God was going to have a son and the son would become a prophet. In other words, God would bless the Sudanese, not only through the father, but now bless the country through the son, also.
The day finally arrived for the birth of the baby that the Sudan was waiting on. At 2:43 in the afternoon, a son was born. In a dream, Steven was told to name his son Joel. In the dream, Steven was told to start quoting verses as soon as he was born and to teach him the Word, as soon as he was able to understand. The Lord told Steven that Joel would be the only true prophet on earth before the great and terrible day of the Lord.
For almost two thousand years, there had not been a true prophet from God on earth. Man did not need a prophet. The Bible was the Word, the complete Word. The Bible guided man through all sorts of problems and man could depend on the Word. However, with the nations of the world becoming more and more ungodly and racing toward the tribulation, God was going to give them one last chance. He let Steven come to the Sudan and the entire country became a lighthouse in a dark world. God would also let one last true prophet come forward and warn the world of the coming tribulation.
Steven and Jackie’s son, Joel, was that prophet. All through his life, he was quoting verses wherever he went and he would tell people that they were sinners and they needed a savior. When Joel was ten years old, the slave trade finally stopped. At the age of twelve, Joel started to preach the coming judgment of the world from God. He was telling not only the Sudan about a man by the name of the Antichrist, but he was telling the whole world.
Four years later, a letter addressed to Steven arrived. The letter asked if his son, Joel, would come and preach at the soccer stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. They thought that they might get twenty thousand to come and hear one of the youngest preachers in the world. Being sixteen and preaching the Word to a dying world was the exact thing that Joel wanted to do. Steven wrote back and accepted the invitation. One telephone call after another and everything was set up.
The day finally arrived for Joel to speak. The promoter thought that they could get twenty thousand to come and hear the Word, but the stadium was completely filled. One hundred thousand came to hear, and they had to turn forty three thousand away. The announcer came forward and introduced the person that would lead the two gospel songs.
After the songs, Joel was introduced. The announcer stated, “It is now time to hear one of the youngest preachers in the world. Here is the JUDGMENT PREACHER, Joel Pittman.”
Joel started out by saying that the tribulation was still future, but how far into the future, no one knew. “The rapture could occur before the day is over or the rapture could be ten, twenty, or even thirty years down the road. No one knows the day, the hour, or the second the Lord will come for His own. One must be ready to be taken. In order to be ready, you must accept Christ as your personal Savior. If you do not, you will go into the tribulation.” For almost two hours, Joel preached the coming judgment of God. Thousands did accept, but there were thousands that walked away from salvation. Those never would accept, and when the rapture did occur, they went into the tribulation.
Joel did not g
o to Bible College, nor, for that matter, did he ever attend any school of higher learning. He received everything from God. God did bless his ministry with millions coming to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Joel’s ministry blossomed into a full world revival.
When the rapture did occur, there was not one single person on earth that had not heard of The Judgment Preacher. The Judgment Preacher, Joel Pittman, was known world-wide for his dynamic preaching and how simple he made the Gospel. The first prophet, in two thousand years, appeared for just a short time to deliver the MESSAGE, and then he and the church were gone.
As I said, Joel continued to preach judgment until the day that the rapture occurred. Millions of people came to a saving knowledge of Christ through Steven’s son.
But, Steven had two other sons, Matthew, and Peter. Peter was called the son of Thunder by those that were saved under his ministry. Matthew was totally different than Joel and Peter. He presented the Gospel to people, just by being around them and talking to them. He did not have thousands hear him or even hundreds. He liked to go one on one and let the person ask questions and go to the Bible to see for themselves if what he said was true. Also, Steven’s two daughters married preachers and their lives were directed by the Lord.
People will say that one life means nothing compared to millions of lives. However, one life does mean a lot. When one person accepts Christ as his or her Savior, the change that occurs has a ripple affect not only in their life, but in the lives of people not even born yet. Because Gene accepted, his brother Steven and his sons and daughters became Christians. Through them, millions of lives were changed. The entire world heard about the coming judgment of God on a lost world. One person did matter. One person affected the lives of not only millions, but he affected a whole country and the whole world. One person counted. Never think that one person does not count.
Just think how the world would have been, if Gene would have accepted. He had every chance in the world. All he had to do was to accept. He did not accept and everything that I have told you about his brother, Steven, and his family did not happen. Nor did Steven’s son, Joel, become the Judgment Preacher or the first prophet in two thousand years. If you look at the Sudan, it still has the slave trade and it is still a heathen nation. The people in the Sudan are destined for Hell, unless someone tells them of the love of Christ.
Steven’s only son was named Benny, and when he was twenty two years old, he was killed trying to rob a bank.
As I stated earlier, Steven was caught stealing and was sentenced to prison for thirty years. While in prison, he was far from a model prisoner. He was one of the worst prisoners there. He was always cheating or stealing from the other prisoners. He was killed over a carton of cigarettes.
Steven became just like his father, Darrell. He was lost and he was going to an eternal place that he did not believe existed. That place does exist. All it takes is for ONE PERSON to witness to one person and to tell them of the love of Christ. If the person listens and believes, the person will not go to that place called Hell.